Who : Sebastien Tissot, founder of Nissaba. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, Sebastien has had a long career in the Perfumery industry, mostly in the sourcing of natural ingredients around the word for Swiss fragrance house DSM Firmenich, where he was responsible for setting up the company’s sustainability division. He’s now launched his own niche perfumery brand Nissaba, partly in response to the frustrations he found working with international brands reluctant to move faster with sustainable practices, and partly to demonstrate how to adopt sustainable practice in perfumery in the best way he could.
As experienced fragrance journalists who’ve been presented with quite a lot of green washing over our decades of writing, it was astonishing and a bit mind blowing to listen to Sebastien, because he actually knows what he’s talking about. We’re not sure there’s anyone better qualified than him to demonstrate how to do it. He’s even cracked making refillable bottles fun and easy, by simply switching out the base bottle for a new one, as well as creating an innovative cap and wonderfully cool sustainable packaging in colours you’d want to paint your house in.
With Nissaba, Sebastien has created a new way to look at sustainability within fragrance by starting the inspiration journey for each scent at the ingredient’s source country, it’s almost ‘fragrance geography’. He’s used his knowledge in the field – literally – to partner with (and support with investment) the best farmers he’s worked with in the area to create an ingredients-focused collection.
For the perfume Sulawesi for example, key ingredients of Indonesia were the starting point for inspiration so, locally grown patchouli, nutmeg and clover were considered, alongside Sumatra benzoin and vetiver from Java. Sebastien’s theory being that if things grow together in the same atmospheric climate, they will work well together in fragrance. And of course, they do, while also reinforcing our knowledge – as consumers – that this part of the world is a fabulous source for these aromatic ingredients, making us aware of their origins and their natural, olfactive neighbourhood.
This feels like an important new brand, but don’t just take our word for it, go take a sniff. We caught up with Sebastien to find out what fragrance from his own brand he was wearing…
Today I’m wearing Berbera, by Nissaba, a blend of incense extracts from Somaliland, created by Fabrice Pellegrin. I like to remember the connection with the source materials. Smelling our fragrance is made to connect you to the soils, plants and forests ingredients comes from. For the incense and myrrh of Somaliland, in particular, it is somehow mystical when you think about the fact it’s the most ancient perfumery ingredient in the world and has been used by many civilizations as a sacred ingredient. I also like to think of the people who harvested the gums, walking weeks in desert spaces, tapping trees with a lot of patience, this has been harvested in the exact same way since over 5000 years. There are not so many things that are so intemporal.
Fragrance adds another dimension to the day, it’s comparable to poetry in that it extracts you from the flow of our daily routines, and then stays with you, as long as the fragrance lasts.
I was not raised in the culture of fragrance; my family were pretty much all ski instructors or mountain guides. I was born in a ski report in France. It’s only when I joined Firmenich in Geneva when I was 30 years old, that I started to learn and discover perfumery, particularly the ingredient side, and since then it has become a passion, because there are endless possibilities to learn in this space.
My scenting rituals are nothing special, in the morning, two sprays on the neck and two on the wrist. Not everyday and not always with the same fragrance. And I’m not in the habit of scenting my home.
In my career, I spent most of my time embedding sustainability at the core of fragrance products, with the goal of aligning the commercial interests of brands and procurement departments. I was leading this program for over 10 years at Firmenich. Every day I thought about the question, “What is a truly sustainable fragrance?” I worked with the entire value chain, from the harvesters in the remotest parts of the planet to the offices of the leading cosmetics companies, to find the best way to answer this question.
But I became concerned about the false arguments presented to confused consumers, and I believe that the industry’s response to this question was not ambitious enough. So, I found myself thinking about the creation of an ethical brand that would be truly sustainable, while at the same time being able to seduce consumers, and more importantly, that would have a positive impact on the people at the origin of the natural ingredients, whom I know well.
There are two things that make our brand different, at the brand level, and at the fragrance creation level. At fragrance level, the creative approach is founded on assembling the best of a country’s local ingredients, selected amongst the best origins for the palette. This is a reverse approach from the classic perfumery creation process. We start with the identification of the raw materials of a region, then draw up a rigorous inventory of the best natural extracts from these terroirs, from which the formula of each perfume will be composed.
It’s an unusual process that stimulates perfumers’ creativity and challenges them to develop ingredient associations based on this constraint alone. This innovative approach gives each of the brand’s fragrances the role of ambassador for these lands and terroirs, and bring forward the men and women who cultivate and harvest these precious raw materials used in their composition.
At brand level, the company invests 5% of its revenues in local projects aimed at supporting communities of perfume plant growers in the implementation of locally adapted cultivation practices, contributing to the transmission of their know-how and the promotion of virtuous agricultural practices. Today, the brand is helping to finance two projects, one of which is directly linked to the raw materials used in the fragrances in the collection. We’ve already sponsored projects for 45 young students in Paraguay and Madagascar, and planted 8500 trees with about 14 essences, including several perfumery plants. In coherence, we also have the lowest possible carbon footprint, 100 ML and have a totally circular product.
We have had a lot of recognition from the fragrance profession for this approach, with lots of awards, now the challenge is to reach the final consumer in a very competitive space.
Right now I’m working on a mini collection of fragrances from an origin that is never on the radar, I am working with Fabrice again, and this will launch in February 2025 at Esxence. This will be very unusual, and this is a discovery for me too. So follow us and you’ll know!
